Scott Barker:  

UPDATE: May 2026: Music has been taking up a lot of my time over the past year or so. I just completed listening to all of my 417 albums in each's entirety. I'm not sure exactly when I started this endeavor, but I believe that it took me about 20 months. Talk about drumming up some old and dormant memories - really somewhat therapeutic...now that I am no longer employed and living a semi-retired life, I have time to do whatever/whenever I want; it feels satisfying after working for so many years. While listening to my collection, it dawned on me that music has had a significant effect on the life I have lived to date. Four years in the Kelvin Grove band led to a life-long appreciation of all types of music, and I believe that it helped me in the military as well. When I got to basic training, the 'marching' requirement required virtually no effort on my part due to the marching band experience; this gave the drill sergeants one less reason to yell at Barker. Later on, I believe that my understanding of music spurred my aptitude score results on the Defense Language Proficiency Test which led to me becoming a three-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute. This in turn led to me becoming a Foreign Area Officer which posts a high premium on candidates' abilities to learn and speak foreign languages. Lo and behold, over 37 years of military service when all is said and done. I truly believe that my early years with the band had some unexpected positive consequences with my military career. Now that I have completed my analog collection, I've recently started on my digital (CD) collection - I believe that I have about 300-350 of these to go through. After listening to the first 15 or so CDs, the memories drummed up are still there, but they are more recent. I look forward to getting through this collection in a shorter time than it took me to get through the albums. Can't wait to experience the memories associated with this process as well. Salute...Scott... UPDATE: 2005 - A year in Iraq - As did many military personnel, I served a year in Iraq (January to December). This was the most interesting year of my life. If I did not have a wife and three young children awaiting my return, I would have extended for another year. My jobs consisted of three advisory roles: 1) Commander of the Iraqi Army, Lieutenant General Abdul Qadr (five months). When I was selected to deploy to Iraq, I was informed that I would be there to help the Iraqi Army set-up a Foreign Military Sales program. Upon my arrival and my initial reporting to my commanding general officer (Brigadier Errington from Australia), I was informed that I would be the initial military coalition advisor to the new Iraqi army commanding general. "He's over in the Ministry of Defense building; go find him and start to 'advise' him" I was told. Yikes! Not what I was expecting. After a few days of uncertainty as to whether or not this was going to work out, the Iraqi general opened up when I brought him some newly drawn maps of Iraq showing various tribal boundaries. We started to get to know each other, and we traveled all over Iraq for the next four months - mostly by helicopter but some ground movement as well. Way too many stories to relay from this extraordinary assignment, but we were able to build a staff for the Iraqi army from former officers that had been on the wrong side of Sadaam Hussein and moved the new staff out to Camp Victory so it could be co-located with the coalition military operational command - at the time, this was the 18th Airborne Corps commanded by Lieutenant General (3 star) John Vines. My senior rater (big boss) while I in Iraq was Lieutenant General (LTG) David Petraeus - followed by then-Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey. As my charge LTG Abdul Qadr was departing for a location about 30 miles away from Baghdad, General Petraeus assigned me to be the new military advisor for the incoming 2) Minister of Defense, Saddoum Al-Dulami. I worked with the minister for the next four months, again traveling around the whole country, meeting with all kinds of folks from tribal chiefs, prisoners, informants, US military and civilian leadership. As one can imagine, this was a tremendous opportunity for me to really be part (a small part) of helping the Iraqi people build a new country after Hussein's demise. My last three months were spent as the military coalition advisor to the 3) Commander of the Iraqi Special Police forces, Major General Adnan. Although this assignment was to a lower-level Iraqi leader, it might have been the most interesting of the three personnel I worked to support. I was exposed to all kinds of shady dealings and met an equal number of shady characters, but I met some very hard-working civilian Iraqis that really left a positive mark on me. I was happy to make it back home where I soon began the Joint Military Attache School (JMAS) at Boling Air Force Base in Washington, DC. UPDATE: Army Service Summary - I was fortunate to have been able to serve in the US Army for 37+ years; almost all of that on active duty. This length of service was not by plan but rather by accident for the most part. I enlisted in May of 1978 and arrived at basic training in September of that year. Made my way to the rank of sergeant (E5); completed my initial enlisted service obligation, left active duty and enrolled at the University of Houston where I was able to earn a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a subsequent commission as a second lieutenant via the Houston ROTC simultaneous membership program (SMP) before coming back onto active duty. My enlisted tours consisted of 16 months at Fort Ord, CA (7th Infantry Division) then seven months at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA before heading down to Panama for two years stationed at Fort Gulick working at the School of the Americas. My commissioned officer assignments consisted of just under 30 years of service for a total of 37 years, 5 months, and 26 days (enlisted and commissioned - active and reserve). That total includes seven overseas tours: 16 years living overseas (Panama x2, Germany, Portugal, Iraq, France, and Chile). I am a three-time graduate of the Defense Language Institute in Monterey and a graduate of numerous other army schools and courses to include the Army War College; I was fortunate to have earned two post-grad degrees along the way as well. The last fifteen years or so or commissioned service, I spent my time as a Foreign Area Officer working mostly overseas with military personnel from various countries. I'll provide some more details on my year in Iraq with some photos (2005) in a later update. It was a real privilege to serve for so long - glad to be a veteran, but I am looking forw...Expand for more